New to Blu: Movies > November 20-26

Pacific Rim is being released on 2D and 3D Blu-ray the same week its mockbuster rival Atlantic Rim comes out on DVD and the movie its director was meant to have made, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, gets an expected deluxe redux.

The three-disc Extended Edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey includes a 183-minute cut of the movie and nine hours of HD extras.

“Regardless of how you react to the new cut, its video presentation is outstanding, its DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track is terrific, and its supplemental package is so exhaustive it’s almost exhausting to dig through.”

“The flick looks and sounds excellent, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more impressive supplemental package anywhere.”

“The Conjuring makes its presence known on Blu-ray with a remarkable 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that will shock and scare the living daylights out of viewers.

“Filmed entirely with the use of HD cameras, the digital picture displays extraordinary definition.”

“While the lack of deeply saturated colours may not result in this becoming go to demo disc for home theatre enthusiasts, it strikes the appropriate balance between aesthetic intent, cinematic appeal, and digital perfection.”

‘fraid not, Trevor. The only extended 3D edition is the statue gift pack with the high sticker price. Surprisingly, the Australian release of the same package is much cheaper: around A$85 from JB Hi-Fi and EzyDVD. The NZ distributor say the NZ price reflects what Warner Bros offered it for in this market.

I bought the extended 3D version of The Hobbit from Amazon UK. Cost $30 including shipping. Philip, are you sure that local release of Pacific Rim comes with a 7.1 soundtrack? UK release of this movie only comes with a 5.1 soundtrack so assume that this will be the case with the local release. I will import from US if there is not a 7.1 soundtrack on local release.

You’re right — it is 5.1. Unbelievable for an HD spectacle of this calibre!!! I naively assumed it couldn’t be anything but 7.1! Clearly you’ll need to keep importing from the US if you want the best specs.

Yes it is unbelieveable. What makes things worse is that the UK and NZ/Australian release 2D/3D double pack comes with a German 7.1 soundtrack on the 3D disc and a French 7.1 soundtrack on the 2D disc!! Also: the local release of Pacific Rim comes with 16 bit audio whereas the US release comes with 24 bit audio. Not sure if most people could notice the difference though.